Re-examining the effect of China's new-energy demonstration cities construction policy on environmental pollution: a perspective of pollutant emission intensity control

The construction of new-energy demonstration cities (NEDC) is a typical energy policy recently implemented in China, which aims to accelerate energy transition. Using panel data for 269 Chinese cities during 2010-2017, this study examines the effect of the NEDC construction policy on environmental pollution under the difference-in-differences (DID) framework from the perspective of pollutant emission intensity control. The results show that China's NEDC construction policy exerts a significant negative impact on environmental pollution, especially in the central and western cities, as well as the cities with a low level of economic development. However, the pollution reduction effect is unsustainable due to the lack of long-term policy planning. The mechanism analysis suggests that the NEDC construction policy mainly reduces environmental pollution through the scale effect, that is, reducing the scale and intensity of electricity consumption. The findings of this study provide beneficial inspiration for scientific implementation of energy policies in the future.